The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, Illustrated by Louis Slobodkin

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, Illustrated by Louis Slobodkin

Summary: Wanda was not at school and nobody noticed for many days. One day Peggy and Maddie looked for her and realized that she was gone, and had not been for a while now. Then, later on that same day,  Mrs. Mason announced that Wanda had won the girl’s drawing award. Wanda had submitted 100 drawings of beautiful dresses. Peggie and Maddie would always poke fun at wanda because she had a funny name and was from Boggins Heights, which is where the poor live. Wanda wore the same dress to school every day, a pale blue one. One day Cecile came to school with a new crimson dress, everybody was amazed by it, that’s when Wanda mentioned that she had one hundred dresses in her closet. However, the other girls did not believe her and then created a game called “How many dresses?” where they would ask how many things Wanda had of certain things like hats and shoes. Maddie knew this game was wrong, but she never said anything, and she felt guilty about it. After Wanda was announced winner, Mrs. Mason read a letter from Wanda’s dad saying that they had moved away to the big city, because his children were being treated badly at the school, and they hoped the big city would be better. Maddie, felt really guilty about what they had done. She wanted to say something, but was afraid that she would be teased, too. Later on, Peggy expressed some remorse and suggested that they go to Wanda’s house and talk to her. However, they were too late, they had already gone, so they decided write her letter instead. Although they meant it to be an apology letter, they just wrote a friendly one instead. They waited a long time to hear back, until finally, around Christmas time they did. Mrs. Mason read it to the class and in it Wanda said that her new Teacher was not as good as Mrs. Mason, that she had new dresses, and that she wanted Peggy and Maddie to have two of her drawings. Peggy took this letter as Wanda’s forgiveness, but Maddie still felt guilty because Wanda was always so nice to them. Later on that day , Maddie realized in the drawings, the girls wearing the dresses looked just like her and Peggy.

Review: This book is a wonderful book to read to the ages first graders and up, about bullying, speaking up, and accepting others. This can be a hard conversation for students, so a fun activity may be to have students write in a reflection journal about the time they dealt with a similar situation. During a discussion on this book with students, it would be a great to have the students talk about and grasp each character's emotions. I would love to put this in my classroom.